1. Mechanisms of Contractual Control

At universities where the public has been able to see a contract between by a university and the Charles Koch Foundation, a common stipulation is that any activities comply with the a provision of the contract that CKF calls its “Objectives and Purposes.” In later contracts, this provision is restructured so that the activities must comply with a predefined "mission" of the program.

A common feature of Koch's large multi-year "gifts" to universities is a donation broken into annual installments, disbursed annually only after the donor reviews the programming and hires for compliance with the donor's objectives. The provision allows the donor the annual ability to renew or withhold funding for curriculum and teaching.

At a 2016 conference, the Koch foundation’s Charlie Ruger confirmed these criticisms while speaking on a panel entitled “Successful Models of Programs in Private Enterprise.”

Ruger clarified the mechanism of contractual control:

Everything we do is on an annual basis. So we want our partners to have certainty and be able to do long term programs and stuff. So we’ll say 'for the first 3 to 5 years of an investment, we’ll commit, formally, 3 or 4 million dollars or whatever it is and we do that with a coalition of stakeholders, a coalition of donors. And here’s what the university has said it would like to do with the money. If it does anything else with it, you know, ‘best of luck but the next check isn’t coming.’ (Ruger, Successful Models)

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